OUGD505: Brief 1- Layout!

Layout research/ editorial 

Before beginning any layouts for my content of my book I had a look online at some examples of editorial/layout design as this is something I am completely unfamiliar with- working with body copy and large amounts of content is something I usually try to avoid. 

I haven't worked much with grids so therefore I began looking into the types of grids and overlooking the work we did with Fred last year into magazine grids.

http://www.designersinsights.com/designer-resources/using-layout-grids-effectively

The comment above is important to remember as when I create my book the content needs to be designed into a format which will suit its binding method- currently I am not sure what sort of bind I would like to use but due to the amount of information I will be using  perhaps a more simplistic saddle stitch or perfect bound book would be the best as a complex binding technique may confuse the parent who simply wants to read the information given. 

As the book is for parents I looked at the example below which also has a similar target audience. The text is broken up by softer illustrations and type and this is something I could consider within my design. 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/24904913/Todays-Parent-Feature

Even though this isn't necessarily a layout design I included it because of its colour palette and use of space. The design is simplistic and has a simple yet soft font which is something I need to experiment with. 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/24740773/Best-Year-Ever-Back-to-School-Guide

When working with the content in my own book I need to consider illustration style as well as colour choices. The booklet design below is quite text heavy whereas mine isn't throughout however the use of colour highlights important areas and the illustrations make the publication seem much more friendly and less formal as it is also directed towards parents. When creating my own book I need to consider using illustrations along with type as it will break up the larger paragraphs, it is important that the parent thinks the booklet is trustworthy so therefore it cannot be too childish- however by making it too formal this could scare them off from reading any of the information. 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/6895653/NURTURE-MAGAZINE

I also looked at this magazine below, it was really interesting to look at due to its simplistic colour palette which allows for certain elements of text and images to stand out more than others. The use of columns and grids is clear in this magazine too- however it is different on each page due to the amount of different content. In my own publication it would be a good idea to not stick to one singular grid because Autism is a spectrum- this therefore means that it is not ordered and precise- each individual is different, therefore each page should be slightly different but with one/two things in common in terms of graphic design content such as colour/font. 

https://www.behance.net/gallery/20742993/99U-Quarterly-Magazine-Issue-No3

Infographics: Some of the elements of my book are statistics and therefore this means that I need to find a way to portray these in an interesting way. Infographics isn't something I have designed before so therefore I will look at a wide range of different designs to find what the best ways of showing information.  

An infographic (information graphic) is a representation of information in a graphic format designed to make the data easily understandable at a glance. People use infographics to quickly communicate a message, to simplify the presentation of large amounts of data, to see data patterns and relationships, and to monitor changes in variables over time. 
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/infographics

As seen in this image below infographics are a simplistic way of representing data through image. The use imagery and colour make the statistics easier to digest/read which would be incredibly helpful for my own book as there are statistics I would like to include. There are some sections of the book that will need to be quite text heavy so therefore I don't  want to bore the parent/audience. 

https://www.customermagnetism.com/infographics/what-is-an-infographic/

When looking at info graphics I have found that they seem to have quite a simplistic colour palette of only a few colours which is why it is important that I carefully choose a palette suitable for parents and a sensitive issue. They seem to include little figures of people or other simple vectors when talking about percentages of a population which would be suitable for my statistic based on boys are more likely to have autism. They also seem to use shapes for singular percentages and split facts with a larger word count into sections with parts in bold or by using different colours- these are all things I can apply to my own book to make it interesting to read. 

http://www2.shutterstock.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2013/01/img22.jpg

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/books/

I have found from looking through books like the one above information is shown in a whole range of different ways. For instance through graphs, pie charts, dots/circles and type too. The most important element I have gained from this is that they are simplistic and easily read- they are colourful and therefore interesting too.